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Reply to "advice on odd situation."

First, congrats on a fine season. Playing HS ball with your classmates and friends is an experience which you will always relish. And particularly satisfying were those dingers.

Second, just preparing/elevating your baseball skills to college POTENTIAL is a tremendous time-consuming effort which rewards that focus with infinitesimal improvement and no guaranteed result. AND, the amount of work a college player puts in dwarfs the HS effort. For example, lifting x 5 and cage x 3 to a HS kid trying to get recruited is a week he has the flu. There is a saying in baseball which goes something like this: when you're not working out, someone who wants your spot is. 

So, bringing that to you, are you ready to  - starting next week - put in three hours a day to building baseball skills? That means batting lessons and, for you, a fielding/game coach. Every day. Three hours - and that's just to keep up with the guys who understand how hard it is and how much it takes to reach the next level.

Third, no coach will use any capital on you; coaches are too busy going after guys who have a long track record and multiple references. Doesn't mean you can't kick in a door and get a workout, just means it's all on you with no boost or real interest from the coach. All Ivy schools have a limited (app 6 - 8) number of kids who - after meeting academic minimums and possessing great skills - coaches get in. (By great skills, of my son's class, all thought they were pro material until stepping in campus; three reached proball, one is MLB, one AAA, the other retired.) That leaves several roster spots open for anyone who got in on their own - and these kids were also all-city, state, whatever.

Fourth, you need to educate yourself on the life of a college player. There are lots of threads here which talk about it; but, just think of going to classes AND having a 40/hr week job - and then the season begins. Do you have that type of stamina, committment, and discipline?

Fifth, what if you never played or even got an AB - but had to put in the same amount of work as a starter? Clean the field, do the chores, sit on the bench in the freezing cold, shagging for hours on hours, and all the behind the scenes scut work is part of being player. No glory, just every day grinding it out. 

Sixth, if you still harbor a burning desire to play college ball, every waking moment should be devoted to catching up with guys who have been playing at the highest levels for 5+ years; you need to put in the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladstone postulated was needed to gain a degree of expertise in any endeavor. Find the best instructors, get up early and hit 250 off a tee and again before bedtime. Pay a guy to hit groundballs and pop-ups until his palms bleed - then hit the gym. 

 

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